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Jalandhar: As per the media reports emanating from Jalandhar the pro-hindutva group along with its parent organisation RSS here on last week (20th May) supported Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s strategy to let the blacklisted Sikhs visit the country and amalgamate them into the so-called “mainstream”, saying it would be a welcome step.

Capt. Amarinder Singh [FIle Photo]

“There are people who have been blacklisted (for being involved in Sikh freedom movement) and living abroad. If they want to return and join the mainstream, it would be a good and welcome step,” Punjab RSS chief Brij Bhushan Singh Bedi was quoted saying by an English vernacular.

He said such people have lost connection with their roots. “Some people are still active in Khalistan movement but they do not have any connection at the ground level,” he further claimed in his statement.

Punjab unit BJP chief Vijay Sampla said that there are only a few in the blacklisted category. “The centre is considering this matter and the issue had also surfaced during the SAD (Badal)-BJP regime,” he said.

According to his views those who had left the country after getting influenced by the movement have now realised that it was futile effort.

However, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Shantidoot, who comes from a Sangh background, said there is nothing wrong in accepting such people into the (so-called) mainstream but the government must be careful and do proper screening, notes Indian Express (IE).

Earlier last month Amarinder Singh in his meeting with union home minister Rajnath Singh he had sought the permission from the center to scrap the blacklist so that Sikh youths can freely travel to the country.

INDIAN STATE IS USING THE SO-CALLED BLACK LIST A TOOL TO CONTAIN SIKH DIASPORA ACTIVISM:

It is pertinent to mention here that the so-called black list of Sikhs was created by Indian state after the events of 1984. This list is considered to be tool devised for harassing and discouraging the Sikh diaspora sections and thereby curb their activism.

In June 2011 it came into light that the so-called black list maintained by the Indian government had many major flaws. The Home minister of India sent a list of 185 persons, after “refining” the list afresh, to Punjab Government for its’ review on 14 May, 2010 but later it came into light that there were only 169 real names as 16 names were purely fictitious, due to double and triple entries. Moreover, from those 185 names many had deceased, such as Dr. Jagjeet Singh Chauhan, or were already living in Punjab, such as Wassan Singh Jafarwal, Harpal Singh Cheema and Kulbir Singh Barapind. Interestingly Kulbir Singh was handed over to India after India sought his extradition from USA, but still his name was figuring in the socalled “blacklist”.